Exam regulator publishes report to stop coursework cheats

Teachers are strongly urged to ensure that their pupils' coursework is genuinely their own, as part of a fresh crackdown on cheating in the run-up to this year's exam season.

New guidance from the government's exam regulator, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, offers strategies to prevent groups of students from colluding, and tips to help teachers identify changes in spelling and structure that may suggest parts of the work have been copied from elsewhere.

Teaching staff are also advised to familiarise themselves with websites that offer writing services, which will help them to better identify plagiarised work downloaded from the internet. The coursework leaflet, published today, was produced by the QCA coursework taskforce, chaired by headteacher Sue Kirkham, who is currently president of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL).

The taskforce was set up following the publication of a review of GCE and GCSE coursework arrangements by the QCA last November. The taskforce membership included practising teachers, awarding bodies, schools, colleges, Ofsted, parents and the regulatory authorities together with other stakeholders.

The QCA's review highlighted the huge scale of cheating and plagiarism in the secondary school system. It warned that exam boards appeared to be failing to spot cheating, even though the number of cases of fraud was increasing. In 2004, 3,600 teenagers were caught breaching the rules - a 9% rise on the previous year. The problem has been exacerbated by the growing use of the internet, with more than nine out of 10 teenagers interviewed for the QCA's report saying they had access to the web at home.

The QCA also examined the role of parents in helping with coursework, calling for much clearer advice to ensure parents do not overstep the "thin line" between supervising their children's coursework and helping them to commit "malpractice", which could lead to their work being disqualified. The QCA also found that teachers suffered from "limited guidance" in terms of the acceptable limits of permitted help, triggering today's new guidance for the profession.

Ms Kirkham said: "It is essential that teachers are given advice and guidance to ensure that they are able to mark coursework fairly and be able to detect if the work is not the candidate's own. We hope that teachers will keep and refer to this leaflet when marking coursework this year and in future.

"The list of suggestions included in the leaflet can be used by all teachers as a way to reassure themselves that the work that is submitted is the candidate's own. Equally, it is important that teachers set and supervise coursework in the best possible way, so we have provided suggestions for the future to ensure that teachers minimise the chance of candidate malpractice."

The chief executive of the QCA, Ken Boston, said: "It is important that teachers are rigorous in their marking of coursework. This guidance provides some excellent suggestions to ensure that teachers are able confidently and consistently to confirm the work is the candidate's own. This leaflet is a valuable resource for teachers."

The general secretary of the ASCL, John Dunford, said: "Coursework plagiarism is a major problem for schools, this guide will provide very useful advice to school leaders and teachers."

Read a copy of Authenticating Coursework: a teacher's guide here. It is also available on the QCA website.